Job overview
We are recruiting a Senior Finance Manager who will lead the delivery of a comprehensive financial management and business partnering service for a significant & complex portfolio within East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. The role will provide high-quality, timely, & insightful financial reporting & analysis on both a monthly & ad hoc basis, enabling effective decision-making at Divisional, Trust, and Executive level.
You will support a large, operationally complex Division comprising surgical specialties & clinical support services. A core element of the role will be to apply strong commercial & analytical skills to understand the relationship between activity, income, & cost drivers, supporting the optimisation of income streams & the effective management of expenditure.
The role will play a key part in supporting service development, transformation, major change programmes, providing senior financial business expertise to assess affordability, value for money, and financial risk. The post holder will ensure that business cases, investment proposals, & transformation plans are financially robust, deliverable, and aligned with the Trust’s financial strategy and wider NHS regulatory framework.
This role would particularly suit a candidate with strong commercial or corporate finance experience who is motivated to apply their skills within a complex, purpose-driven NHS environment.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be a senior member of the Trust’s Finance Directorate, providing strategic and operational financial leadership to support the delivery of high-quality, safe and sustainable patient care within a complex acute hospital environment.
The post holder will work closely with senior clinical & operational leaders, acting as a trusted advisor and strategic partner to drive financial performance and service sustainability.
The Senior Finance Manager will lead on the development, delivery and monitoring of robust financial plans aligned to Trust strategy, national NHS priorities and regulatory requirements. They will provide expert financial advice to Executive Directors, Divisional Leadership Teams and senior clinical leaders, influencing decision-making at the highest level.
The role is responsible for ensuring strong financial governance, control and performance management across designated portfolios, including oversight of budgets, forecasting, cost improvement programmes (CIPs), business cases and long-term financial planning. The post holder will play a key role in driving financial recovery, productivity and value for money, balancing financial sustainability with service quality and patient outcomes.
The post holder will be expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy, exercising sound judgement in complex and often ambiguous situations, and contributing to the overall strategic leadership of the Trust.
Working for our organisation
At East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.
We run the following hospitals:
* The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
* New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
* Hertford County, Hertford
* Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood
We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.
We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.
Person specification
Qualifications / Training
Essential criteria
* CCAB (or CIMA) recognized qualification
* Evidence of A level standard
Previous Experience
Essential criteria
* Post qualification experience at a senior level in a large and complex organisation.
* Significant experience of business plans/cases for service development/change
* Efficiency plans, costing and business case planning
* Experience in compliance and integrity of finance systems
* Significant experience of working with senior management particularly General Managers, Executive Directors and Clinical Directors.
* Experience of working directly with clinical staff, successfully communicating with and influencing.
Desirable criteria
* Implementation of complex new IT developments
* Good knowledge of, and commitment to IM&T development
* Management of a large and complex cost improvement initiatives and reporting processes
* Experience of evaluating complex tenders
Skills
Essential criteria
* Ability to plan, delegate, lead, motivate, meet deadlines, interpret and communicate complex information
* Ability to produce monthly financial statements and reports and contribute to the Annual Accounts process ensuring the Trust strict financial timetables are adhered to
* Ability to provide expert complex specialist monthly financial reports to Board level to manage performance against plan
* Ability to recruit and develop staff professionally and identify training and leadership programmes
* Ability to work under pressure and sustain concentration over long periods to tight deadlines and have good time management skills with the ability to prioritise effectively
* Computer literate with a good working knowledge of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and large general ledger systems
* Ability to apply knowledge to workload and demonstrate analytical skills
Knowledge
Desirable criteria
* Knowledge of best practice reporting, costing and appraisal techniques
* Sound knowledge of the NHS and related organisations
* Working knowledge of common clinical treatments to aid costing and communication with clinicians
Other Requirements
Essential criteria
* Experience and evidence of engagement around the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda. Able to actively support the development of a culture that recognises and promotes equality, values diversity, and actively leads by example in deploying these qualities. Understands the impact on equality, diversity and inclusion issues in all aspects of service delivery and planning
* Role model our Trust values every day